The incident occurred in the district of Bulandshahr. The victim was called Subodh Kumar Singh and had investigated Muslims lynched in the name of "sacred cows". According to a Muslim activist and lawyer, the dynamics of death suggests an execution. The inspector "was hated by sectarian forces".
Lucknow (AsiaNews) - The police inspector who was shot at point blank range two days ago in Uttar Pradesh was assassinated by a "Hindu conspiracy", Asad Hayat, a Muslim activist and lawyer, told AsiaNews.
According to Hayat, lawyer of the family of Mohammad Akhlaq, beaten to death in 2015 by "cow vigilantes" because suspected of having consumed beef, the murder of the agent is attributable precisely to the investigations that he had conducted on that case of lynching , which became famous throughout the country. Hayat says: "To kill him was a criminal conspiracy against him by the village hooligans. By their own admission, the thugs are linked to the far-right Hindu parties ".
On December 3, a crowd of Hindu nationalists "cow protectors" devastated Syana police station in Bulandshahr district and killed Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh and a 20-year-old youth. From initial investigations, the Radicals protested for the discovery of about twenty carcasses of abandoned cows in the forest. The policeman, who tried to appease the protesters, would have been a "collateral" victim of those violence.
The story has taken sectarian connotations from the beginning, when the Islamic community was blamed for illegal slaughter of beef. In India, the cow is the sacred animal of Hinduism and its killing is considered an outrage to the gods. Uttar Pradesh is among the Indian states that have banned the trade and consumption of beef and imposed the closure of slaughterhouses. The ban has been contested by many parties, because it puts the survival of the poor, especially Muslims and Christians, who work their skins at risk.
Even the dynamics of the death of the inspector, shot to death "above the left eyebrow", had raised the doubt that it was a full-blown execution. This is confirmed today by Akhlaq's family lawyer, who adds another piece: "Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh" knew very well that extreme right-wing fundamentalists can incite violence, which is why they attacked him. Singh was killed in a well-organized plot, because he was hated by sectarian forces for his investigation of the Akhlaq case. In Syana, nationalist activists accused him of sympathizing with cow traffickers. "
Given the delicacy of the topic "sacred cows" in Uttar Pradesh, adds Hayat, "who would ever dream of leaving the heads and the skin of cattle abandoned in a field?". "The inspector knew that the situation was dangerous - he concludes - but he ventured among the protesters alone and peacefully. Instead he was lynched and killed".